Posted by Rebecca Paddick | December 23, 2016 | People

The Co-founder of The Education Foundation and CEO of Edtech UK Ian Fordham is joining Microsoft UK and will become Director of Education in January 2016. Ian will be responsible for all of Microsoft’s work in education across the UK, across schools, colleges, universities and other learning organisations.

The Education Foundation, which recently celebrated its 5th year anniversary, was co-founded by Ian Fordham and Ty Goddard in 2011 and is one of the most highly respected education organisations in Britain – working with policy makers, education leaders and startup businesses on education reform, technology and innovation.

Key achievements in that time include The Education Foundation setting up the first Edtech Accelerator programme with Tech City UK and running the UK’s first Education Reform Summits, in partnership with the Department for Education. In 2015, they launched Edtech UK as a strategic body to accelerate the growth of the sector in the UK and beyond. Its education and edtech advocacy work in the past year, has helped put UK’s “edtech” on the global map, through running international trade missions, supporting the fastest growing edtech startup and scale up companies and running its first Edtech UK Global Summit in November 2016.

Britain is a world leader in education innovation and I look forward to working with education institutions and leaders across the system, to empower every learner to achieve more

Ian Fordham said: “I’m extremely proud of what The Education Foundation and Edtech UK have done in the past five years to accelerate growth and innovation across the education and edtech sector. A lot has been achieved but there’s much more to do. That’s why I’m very excited to be joining Microsoft and to be asked to lead the UK education business. Britain is a world leader in education innovation and I look forward to working with education institutions and leaders across the system, to empower every learner to achieve more.”

Ty Goddard, Co-founder of The Education Foundation and Chair of Edtech UK said “The appointment of Ian as Director of Education for Microsoft is testimony to his work and passion for education and technology across the sectors. I am also delighted that Ian will take up a role on Edtech UK’s advisory group and continue his pioneering work supporting education startup businesses and entrepreneurs across Britain and beyond. It’s been a pleasure to work with Ian over the past 8 years in this and other organisations. We have achieved a lot; we both feel that our journey to positively support education in Britain has just started.”

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